The number of foreigners using the English version of Korean patent abstracts has rapidly increased this year, showing an increase by three times in comparison with the same period, last year (News Letter No. 250)

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KH

Post Date

2012-10-18

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1. The number of foreigners using the English version of Korean patent abstracts has rapidly increased this year, showing an increase by three times in comparison with the same period, last year

Foreigners’ use of Korean patent information has increased about three times compared with the same period of 2011. Accordingly, the importance of the English version of Korean patent abstracts is being more and more magnified.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced that it would carry out the improvement of the English version of Korean patent abstracts as a first gateway which foreigners contact to search the Korean patent information.

The English version of Korean patent abstracts has been provided by the Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service (KIPRIS) and Korean Patent Information Network (K-PION) which are Korean search service providers.

As the demand of the English version of Korean patent abstract has increased in foreign countries, KIPO plans to increase the quality and contents of the abstracts in English and has carried forward making improved abstracts, to strengthen the opportunity of obtaining a prior filing status of Korean technology in foreign countries.

KIPO plans to expand the online supply of the English version of Korean patent abstracts from one country, China, to nine countries including Taiwan, Russia, Spain, etc. and to translate the Korean language presented in a drawing attached to an abstract into English.

2. The multi touch zoom which is a patent of Apple

There is a topic about a mobile application to substitute a ‘multi touch zoom patent’ of Apple.

GT Telecomm showed an app to ‘enlarge/reduce a smart screen’ by one finger.

If this app is installed, it is possible to easily enlarge/reduce a picture in a gallery using one finger.

A picture is enlarged by pulling out one of the four corners of the picture with one finger only instead of pinching out a picture with two fingers as is presently done. And in a like manner, a picture is shrunk or reduced by pushing in one of the four corners of the picture.

It is possible to enlarge/reduce a screen by using two points. A screen is reduced by dragging to the first touch point while touching a second point (a second touch point) within one second after touching any one place (a first touch point) of the screen. To enlarge a screen, the opposite way is used.

A region is enlarged by using two points. The inside region between two points is enlarged to the whole screen by double touching a second point after touching one point to be enlarged.

This technology especially draws interest since it is capable of replacing Apple’s multi-touch zoom patent that US jurors recently gave the verdict that Samsung Electronics infringed.

3. Interest in the flexible printed circuit board (PCB) is booming due to the increased demand

According to KIPO, the number of the patent applications in the flexible PCB field which is a core component of a smart phone has rapidly increased.

PCB is a electronic component forming a conductor to transmit an electric signal on an insulator.

The number of the flexible PCB related applications filed with KIPO for the recent four years was 57 in 2008, 58 in 2009, 65 in 2010 and 79 in 2011. The number of the applications filed by Korean medium and small companies and middle standing enterprises was 19 in 2008, 21 in 2009, 25 in 2010 and 28 in 2011, showing a steady increase every year. These companies are more active in filing applications compared with large companies.

Arguing that Galaxy S3, etc. infringed its patent, LGD requested Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display to stop the actions of manufacturing and selling the relevant products and to pay royalties for the use of its patent. The reason is that Samsung used LGD’s organic light emitting diode (OLED) cooling technique without the permission.

On September 27, 2012, LGD announced that it brought a suit to stop patent infringement and a suit for damage before Seoul Central District Court because it determined that Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display infringed seven of its own patents including an OLED panel layout technique, etc.

The seven techniques that were infringed by Samsung according to LGD’s argument are three cases related to the OLED panel layout, three cases related to the OLED driving circuit, and one case related to the OLED apparatus. The target products are Galaxy S2, Galaxy S2HD, Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note and Galaxy Tab 7.7.

According to LGD’s argument, it filed the suit for damages to fully stop the unfair use since Samsung Display producing the OLED panel for mobile devices and Samsung Electronics using the panel used the OLED patented techniques of LGD without permission.

In reply to the LGD’s argument, a spokesperson of Samsung Display said, “After accurately checking the matters in issue as LGD brought the suits, we will review a legal counteraction if needed.”